Piper believes leadership shift at Apple is underway — Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, one of the most outspoken figures on all things Apple, told clients on Wednesday that Steve Jobs' absence from this year's Macworld Expo signals “the beginning of a shift in leadership roles” at the company.

Apple Expo Paris cancelled — Reed Exhibitions will not hold Apple Expo Paris in 2009. The show organizers confirmed its plans for Macworld on Wednesday. — Apple has slowly been moving away from the Paris expo for the last several years. In 2005 Apple cancelled Steve Jobs' keynote in Paris …

Death To The Embargo — PR firms are out of control. Today we are taking a radical step towards fighting the chaos. From this point on we will break every embargo we agree to. — Background: — Tech companies are desperate for press and hammering their PR firms for coverage on blogs and major media sites.

Walmart iPhone on sale the 28th for a lot more than $99 — At this point, it's clear that the $99 iPhone 3G rumor was just that: rumor. We have a letter that we believe to be authentic from a source within Walmart that says the iPhone will launch in the house that Sam built at 9am December 28th.

iPhone gaming is maturing as more major games join the fray — With Apple pushing iPhone game development, industry veterans quitting their jobs to focus on game programming, and some developers making record profits with their iPhone apps, it's getting harder and harder to argue that the iPhone isn't a good gaming platform.

4 titles, including the newest in the METAL GEAR series will be progressively made available for download for the iPhone and iPod touch from late this month. — KONAMI will make downloads of METAL GEAR SOLID TOUCH, DanceDanceRevolution S Lite, SILENT HILL The Escape and Frogger for the iPhone …

The Definitive Coast-to-Coast 3G Data Test — After a grueling eight-city coast-to-coast test of the 3G networks run by AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, we've come up with some clear-cut test results. Think you know who has the best network? Think again. — The Test — 3G is more important now than ever before.

Yahoo Putting Jumpcut In The Deadpool? — Online video editing service Jumpcut, which was acquired by Yahoo! in September 2006, appears to be in the process of shutting down. — From their website: … We're not sure how long this notice has been on the Jumpcut website, but it seems to be quite recent.

Clearwire's WiMax Rollout Faces Steep Hurdles — Though Clearwire Corp.'s recent merger with Sprint Nextel Corp.'s wireless broadband unit put it on more solid financial and strategic footing, the company still faces a steep climb as it tries to best rivals in the rollout of a new generation of mobile Internet access.

New York considers taxing iTunes downloads — New York wants a share of iTunes' money. — The state is staring at a $15.4 billion deficit so Gov. David Paterson is proposing an “iPod tax” as part of his state budget. Under the plan, New York would charge state and local sales tax for …

Dave McClure Joins Founders Fund — Startup aficionado Dave McClure has formally joined VC firm the Founders Fund as an angel investor, according to an update he made to his LinkedIn profile this week. The Founders Fund was created by former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel in 2005 and is described …

New in Labs: Turn an email into a Google doc — More than once, I've had a conversation over email and later realized that the information contained in the messages would make a great starting point for a document. So I built an experimental feature for Gmail Labs that does just that …

Losing the Paper Trail With Earth Class Mail — The mail-scanning service Earth Class Mail is opening a new outpost in downtown Manhattan on Wednesday to cater to jet-setters, business travelers, expatriates, nomads and anyone else who is on the road too often to manage their snail mail.

VC survey: Market will look up ... in 2010 — There's a tough year ahead for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, according to a new survey from the National Venture Capital Association. Respondents predicted venture capitalists and entrepreneurs alike will have trouble raising money next year …